As lawyers for victims of tech, we are the first to observe trends about new online weapons. And it is our duty to sound the alarm for our lawmakers.
Not everybody gets us as their lawyer, but we’ve used our experience to help hundreds of millions of people by getting laws passed around the country when we realize our clients are just the tip of the iceberg for larger trends of harm. Over the last decade+ we’ve created, drafted, and lobbied for legislation criminalizing nonconsensual pornography, requiring expansions to statutes of limitations for suing sex criminals, outlawing deepfakes, setting minimal standards for tech products marketed to kids, and stopping the sale of a popular suicide method.
Carrie has been a national leader in the fight to rein in Big Tech and reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, testifying to US Congress three times.
Passing Bills, Protecting You
Unwanted and obsessive attention that would cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety is called stalking. Stalking is a crime. Celebrities, politicians, and other public figures are stalked, but so are everyday people. People are stalked by their coworkers, friends, and past romantic partners. Sometimes, there is no connection at all. Every victim deserves protection and support regardless of the type or existence of a relationship with their stalker.
Right now, if a New Yorker is being stalked by someone they aren’t related to by blood or marriage or with whom they haven’t had an ‘intimate’ relationship, they cannot request a Civil Order of Protection (OP). The CREEP Act provides every New Yorker being stalked with the opportunity to get a Civil OP, whether they know their stalker well or not at all. Civil OPs are incredibly effective in deterring stalkers and are fast to obtain. Ordinarily, it only takes us one day to get a Temporary OP for a client and it goes into effect as soon as it is served on the offender.
Currently, stalking victims have to turn to the police to get justice. For various reasons, many victims do not want to go to law enforcement, nor do they want their stalkers to be arrested–they just want the stalking to stop. Not to mention that not all complaints of harassing or stalking get investigated or prosecuted; certainly not in a timely way.
Civil OPs save police time and resources and save victims the time, delay, and distress associated with a criminal investigation. CREEP makes arrest the last option instead of the first.
We drafted the first version of the CREEP Act and have gotten it sponsored by Sen Andrew Gounardes. Thanks to RAINN and Sen. Nathalia Fernandez for their unwavering support.
The CREEP Act brings stalking protections up to date with stalking behaviors. Tech–the internet, social media, electronic communications–is being weaponized by stalkers who ensure that victims never get a moment of relief, on or offline. Passing CREEP would mean the protection of victims regardless of how, why, and by who they are being stalked. Passing CREEP would make it safer to be a New Yorker. (WC: 305)
Almost 30 years ago, Congress passed Section 230 a.k.a. Big Tech’s Get-Out-of-Court-Free Card. 230 was a narrow law intended to protect the fledgling tech industry from frivolous defamation lawsuits. This goal was achieved as proven by America’s dominant role in the tech industry, but times have changed drastically.
Congress could not have imagined the free rein of the mega-platforms of today that succeeded the online forums and chat rooms of the mid-90s, but we now have ample proof of the extreme damages caused by their lack of regulation. Section 230 has been expanded via judicial fiat far beyond the statutory language and is outdated, anachronistic, and detrimental.
Congress may have the right decision 28 years ago when they passed Section 230 to shield platforms from defamation. But the statute has been bloated beyond recognition by misguided courts.
Since the year we opened, we’ve been finding new online platforms will use Section 230 to shield themselves from the most heinous of conduct.
Our adversaries have tried to use Section 230 immunity in the following matters:
Omegle matching predators with children for live-chatting, Snap matching drugdealers with children, Grindr designing a product with no mechanism to ban abusive users, Grindr, welcoming underage children on its platform and matching them with local adults for in-person sexual encounters, Amazon manipulating its star-rating system to maximize the sales of suicide kits, social media apps (TikTok, YouTube, Snap, Instagram) addicting children and causing them eating disorders and suicidal ideation.
On May 22, 2024, Carrie testified to the United States Congress at the launch of the Legislative Proposal to Sunset Section 230 of the Communications Act, a law introduced by the bipartisan House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.
This was Carrie’s third time testifying to US Congress on Section 230.
The Sunset Clause is really short and sweet.
It reads as follows:
“Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230) is amended by adding at the end of the following:
‘(g) SUNSET.– This section shall have no force or effect after December 31, 2025.’”’
Congress enabled the unmitigated growth of Big Tech and now it has the duty and sole power to hold it accountable for the harms these platforms cause and profit off of. No person, entity, or industry should be able to tell the U.S. Government to f**k off. We don’t have kings, we shouldn’t have empires either.
We represent 26 families of deceased individuals to whom Amazon.com sold and delivered 98+% pure sodium nitrite. High purity sodium nitrite is an odorless and yellowish-white saltlike substance. It is safe only in controlled laboratory settings for bleaching textiles, making chemical compounds, and treating metal.1 There is no household use for 98+% Purity Sodium Nitrite. The Youth Poisoning Protection Act would prohibit Amazon.com or any other retailers from selling high concentration sodium nitrite to the public by classifying it as a “banned hazardous product.”
In 2017, the ingestion of sodium nitrite was identified in a popular suicide manual and online as a recommended way to die by suicide, prompting a spike in sales on Amazon.com. The sodium nitrite sold by Amazon is so toxic that just a teaspoon of the white odorless salt mixed with a glass of water and drunk all but guarantees a fast and excruciating death.
It is not safe to handle sodium nitrite at a 98% purity in a nonindustrial setting as it can cause severe burns, is toxic when inhaled, and, as in these cases, is lethal when ingested.2 Curing salts consist of only 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% table salt. These curing salts are typically dyed pink to avoid any accidental ingestion.3 The HiMedia sodium nitrite distributed by Amazon was of 98% purity, 15,700 per cent purer than a curing salt. There is no circumstance in which delivery of 98% purity sodium nitrite to a household does not pose a substantial product hazard.
In 2023, the number of Americans lost to suicide crossed 50,000–more than any year on record.4 Suicide is preventable. Those experiencing suicidal ideation are not doomed to die by suicide. 90% of those who have a non-fatal suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide at a later date. Another common misconception is that people will simply choose another suicide method if they no longer have access to their preferred one. Studies show that means substitution after means restriction is rare; when it does happen, those who choose less lethal means have a higher chance of survival. This is why means restriction–which is what the YPPA would do–is most effective when restricting highly lethal methods like 98% purity sodium nitrite.5,6,7
Other major e-commerce platforms Walmart, eBay, and Etsy once sold sodium nitrite to households. They stopped when they found out that the chemical was primarily being used for suicide–Amazon did not. Amazon’s brazen brushing aside of the pleas of bereaved families proves that voluntary industry standards are not adequate for 98% purity sodium nitrite. It is clear that Congress has the sole power and responsibility to ban the sale of high concentration sodium nitrite to the public.
References 1 “Sodium Nitrite.” Haz-Map, haz-map.com/Agents/7140. 2 National Center for Biotechnology Information. “PubChem Compound Summary for CID 23668193, Sodium Nitrite” PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Sodium-Nitrite. 3 “CURING SALT #1 – 6.25% Nitrite.” The Spice Guy , 2017, www.thespiceguyco.com/products/cure-pink-salt-6-25-nitrite?srsltid=AfmBOoroXlPNfKz-RrKJTK2rWmhhSCtSxd7FkdFFOMRwHRpHtqte8QIo. 4 Meet the Press. “More than 50,000 Americans Died by Suicide in 2023 — More than Any Year on Record.” NBC News, 31 Dec. 2023, www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/more-than-50-000-americans-died-by-suicide-in-2023-more-than-any-year-on-record-201161285832. 5 Yip, Paul SF, et al. “Means Restriction for Suicide Prevention.” The Lancet, vol. 379, no. 9834, June 2012, pp. 2393–2399, www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)60521-2/fulltext, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60521-2. 6Lim, Jessy S., et al. “Association between Means Restriction of Poison and Method-Specific Suicide Rates.” JAMA Health Forum, vol. 2, no. 10, 15 Oct. 2021, p. e213042, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.3042. 7 Sarchiapone, Marco, et al. “Controlling Access to Suicide Means.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 8, no. 12, 7 Dec. 2011, pp. 4550–4562, www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/12/4550/htm, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8124550.
We AreCutting edge litigators against big tech and powerful predators at work, home, school, and online
C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, is the country’s first law firm dedicated to justice for victims catastrophically injured by human maniacs and inhumane tech platforms. Since 2014, we’ve been at the forefront shutting down some of the worst humans and platforms (e.g. Harvey Weinstein, Omegle, GirlsDoPorn) and have litigated some of the most influential cases – against Amazon, Snap, Meta – reining in the tech companies that thought they were above the law.
